The Curse of a Salary-Cap-Eating Quarterback
Excerpts:
The problem with teams committing so much of their cap space to quarterbacks is that it is clearly an unsuccessful strategy. None of the five highest-paid quarterbacks in 2018 by
average salary—Rodgers, Atlanta’s Matt Ryan, Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins, Garoppolo, and Detroit’s Matthew Stafford—made the playoffs.
The problem is simple: The more you give to a quarterback, the less you give to everyone else. This is fine as long as the quarterback plays to the value of his contract, or as long as a handful of cheap rookies come through to fill the gaps, as is the case in New Orleans and Indianapolis. When those things don’t happen, teams usually fail. Quarterbacks have been given huge extensions because teams deemed it risky not to, but it turns out going all in on a cap-eating quarterback is one of the riskiest propositions in the sport.
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